Halloween May Be The Safest Day of The Year

Halloween is over. All that’s left is the candy nobody wanted, a shriveled pumpkin, and gratitude that your kids survived another Halloween out on the streets when anything could happen. Here is some news that's comforting – and you can keep it in mind for next year. Halloween may be the safest day of the year. That’s according to the Wall Street Journal. They had an article that said, despite our parental paranoia that our kids will be abducted, or given poisoned candy – Halloween is a very low-crime day.

In fact, according to sociologist Joel Best from the University or Delaware, who’s researched Halloween extensively – there has never been one single case of any child being killed by a stranger’s Halloween candy. Yes, there was once a boy in Texas who was poisoned by Pixie Stix, but his dad did it for the insurance money and he was later executed. As far as the kidnapping fear, Elizabeth Letourneau, a professor of crime statistics at the Medical University of South Carolina says, it’s unrealistic. Letourneau says, quote: “There’s zero evidence to support the idea that Halloween is a dangerous date for children in terms of child molestation.”

The Journal isn’t advocating that parents let their kids run around without knowing where they are or whom they’re with, but they do say this: The reason Halloween is one of the safest days of the year is because it’s a day when we meet and get to know our neighbors. When there is a greater sense of community, we are safer.